Republicans File Lawsuit in Pennsylvania to Block Mail-In Ballot Curing Process: ‘Fight for Every Vote Continues’
Courtesy: Forbes
Republicans have filed a lawsuit in Pennsylvania aimed at preventing voters from fixing minor technical errors on their mail-in ballots, The New York Times reported on Thursday. The suit, filed by the Republican National Committee (RNC) against the Pennsylvania secretary of state and all 67 counties, challenges the process of allowing voters to correct mistakes before their ballot is counted, a practice known as “curing.”
The lawsuit seeks to prohibit election officials from notifying voters of such errors and denies voters the opportunity to submit a provisional ballot if their mail-in ballot contains mistakes. “The lawsuit argues that state law prohibits election officials from notifying voters of such errors and allowing them to be fixed in time to have their ballot counted,” wrote reporters Maggie Astor and Neil Vigdor.
In approximately half of U.S. states, voters are allowed to cure technical errors, such as missing or mismatched signatures. However, the new lawsuit contends that Pennsylvania’s varying county procedures for curing ballots violate the state constitution’s requirement for a uniform election process. According to the suit, only the state legislature can enact a curing process, making current practices illegal.
A spokesperson for Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro expressed opposition to the lawsuit, reaffirming the administration’s support for allowing voters to correct technical deficiencies to ensure their votes are counted. “We will continue to fight for every eligible citizen’s right to vote and have their voice heard,” the spokesperson stated.
Pennsylvania is regarded as a crucial battleground state in the upcoming 2024 election, with the winner of the state often favored to secure the Electoral College. Mail-in voting, once utilized equally by both Republicans and Democrats, has increasingly become more popular with Democratic voters after former President Donald Trump repeatedly made unfounded claims that mail-in voting is a scheme to rig elections.
Trump has called on the RNC and its new leadership to focus heavily on election litigation and poll monitoring efforts, intensifying scrutiny of election processes across key battleground states like Pennsylvania. As the legal battle over voting rights continues, both parties recognize that the stakes in Pennsylvania could determine the outcome of the 2024 presidential election.
